Foots-removing means for expressing presses



April 18, 1939. c. B. UPTON FOOTS-REMOVING MEANS FOR EXPRESSING PRESSES 3 Sheei:sSheet 1 Filed Feb. 11, 1935 AZZQM FJU April 18, 1939.

q. B. UPTON FOOTS-REMOVING MEANS FOR EXPRESSING PRESSES 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Feb. 11, 1935 April 18, 1939. c, UPTON 2,154,965

FOOTS-REMOVING MEANS FOR EXPRESSING PRES SES Patented Apr. 18, 1939 UNITED STATES Fool's-REMOVING MEANS FOR EXPRESS- ING PRESSES Charles B. Upton, Piqua, Ohio Application February 11, 1935, Serial No. 6,016

3Clalms.

This invention relates toimprovements in continuous presses of that kind, used for expressing oil or liquid from materials, which comprise a drainage cage or barrel into which the material is fed and in which an axial rotating shaft having one or more screws or worms advances the material lengthwise through the cage and extrudes the solid material through an opening at the end of the barrel, thus creating pressure which squeezes from the material its oil or liquid, which escapes through the drainage openings of the cage.

As commonly constructeithe cage of such presses is made with circumferential longitudinal bars or slats so spaced apart as to leave very narrow longitudinal slits between the bars through which the expressed liquid escapes. The liquid falls from the cage into a receiving trough or receptacle below the cage, over which trough is'usually provided a stationary perforated screen or plate for intercepting and straining from the liquid the foots or fine fibers which may escape with the liquid through the drainage slits of the cage. The foots collect on this stationary screen and having to be removed therefrom, and ordinarily they are removed and returned to the cooking and tempering bin by hand shovelling. This necessitates the employment of labor and, in large mills operating a battery of several presses, a number of attendants are required to shovel the foots from the screen back to the tempering bin. At best, this procedure allows the foots to accumulate more or less on the screens, which is objectionable, not only because they impede the eflicient straining of the liquid through the screens, but also because the accumulating foots become saturated with the liquid falling on them, thereby reducing the yield of oil or liquid from the material in the first pressing, and increasing the quantity of material that has to be again put through the presses.

One object of my invention is to provide practical and eflicient means whereby the foots or fibrous material escaping with the liquid from the press cage are automatically separated from the liquid and removed or returned to the cooking or tempering bin for the material, thereby obviating the necessity for manual labor for this purpose.

Other objects of the invention are to provide means which operate during the operation of the press to remove the foots as they escape from the press cage or are separated from the liquid, and also preferablyto return them to the cooking or tempering bin, without allowing the foots to ac- Fig. 2 is a fragmentary, transverse, sectional elevation thereof, on line 2-2, Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a transverse sectional elevation of the apparatus on line 3-3, Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a transverse, sectional elevation of the lower portion of the apparatus showing a slight modification of my invention.

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary sectional elevation showing the screen scraper.

Referring first to the embodiment of the invention shown in Figs. 1 to 3, A represents the drainage cage of the press and B the worm or screw shaft which extends axially in the cage-and is rotated by suitable drive means for moving the material lengthwise through the cage to the extrusion opening for the solid material at the rear end of the cage. In the usual operation of presses of this sort, the material to be pressed is heated in a cooking or tempering bin l2 arranged above the press cage and from which the material passes through a discharge spout or connection l3 and throat I4 into the press cage. The press cage shown is of ordinary construction comprising a circumferential series of longitudinal narrow bars l5 suitably spaced apart to provide between them narrow, longitudinal slits I6 for the escape of the oil or liquid expressed from the. material, these drainage bars l5 being, as usual, retained in position in and braced by a transversely ribbed reinforcing structure I! which surrounds the longitudinal bars l5. Beneath the press cage is the usual receiving trough or receptacle for the oil or liquid escaping through the drainage slits of the press cage. As usual, this trough may be formed in the. base of the stationary frame 2| of the press. In these presses as heretofore usually constructed, a horizontal stationary screen or perforated plate extends over or across the open top of this trough beneath the press cage, and the oil or liquid flowing from the cage passes through this screen into the trough so that the foots or solid material which may escape with the liquid from the cage will be intercepted and thereby separated from the liquid entering the receiving trough.

The apparatus as thus far described may be constructed as illustrated, or may be of any other usual or suitable construction.

22 represents a perforated screen or drainage medium which extends over the open top of the trough 20 or across the path of the liquid fiowing from the press cage to the trough for intercepting and separating the foots from the liquid. As shown in Figs. 1 to 3, this screen 22 is in the form of an endless belt of screening, drainage, filtering or separating material of any suitable sort, such for instance as a wire mesh screening of proper gage, passing crosswise over the trough 20 and thence around suitably journalled upper and lower rollers 23 and 24 extending lengthwise of the press at one side of the trough, thence beneath the trough and upwardly around lower and upper rollers 25 and 28 arranged lengthwise at the opposite side of the trough and suitably iournalled on the frame. Openings 21 may be provided in the sides of the press frame for the passage of the screen belt beneath the trough. One of the rollers, for instance 23, may be driven by suitable means, such as an electric motor 23, the shaft of which is operatively geared to the shaft of the roller 23, and the shafts of the several rollers are operatively connected, as by sprocket chains 29 passing around sprocket wheels 30 on the roller shafts at opposite ends of the rollers or by cable, sheaves or by the drainage medium endless belt itself or any other suitable means for driving the screening element. One of the rollers, for example, the upper roller 20, is preferably iournalled in bearings Ji adjustable toward and from the driven roller 23 for regulating, as required, the tension on the travelling screen. I

The screen 22 is driven during the operation of the press so that the upper run of the screen will travel over the trough 20 and beneath the press cage and will intercept the foots falling thereon from the press cage with the expressed liquid, and carry the foots away as they lodge on the screen. As the screen passes around the driving roller 23, the foots will discharge from the screen into a suitable conveyor 32 arranged adjacent and below the plane of the roller 23. A suitable scraper 33 is preferably arranged above the trough and operates to scrape or dislodge the foots from the screen as the latter passes the scraper so that the foots will fall into the conveyor 32. The scraper may consist of a blade provided with slotted arms 34 at its ends adjustably secured by means of bolts in slotted supporting brackets 35 at the ends of the trough so that the scraping blade can be properly adjusted toward or from and angularly relatively to the screen to operate most effectively.

The conveyor '32 shown may be an ordinary screw conveyor rotating in a trough or box extending lengthwise of the machine and adapted to convey the foots falling from the screen into the conveyor box to a second conveyor or elevator 31 which tends upwardly at one end of the machine fro the conveyor 32 and is adapted to carry the foots up and discharge them, as through a spout 33, into the cooking or tempering bin. The conveyors may be driven by any suitable means, such as a belt-driven pulley 33 on one end of the screw shaft of conveyor 32, and a belt pulley .40 on a shaft ll geared to the upper end of the elevator 31.

The screen 22 and the conveyors operate continuously during the operation of the press so that the foots escaping with the liquid from the they fall thereon from the press cage and are returned by the conveyors to the cooking or tempering bin l2. Therefore, the foots do not accumulate on the screen or separator beneath the press cage as they would on a stationary screen, and the screen is kept clear for the free passage of the liquid therethrough into the receiving trough 20. During the travel of the foots with the conveyors up to the tempering bin, opportunity is aiforded for liquid to drain from the foots, and such liquid can be piped or conducted from the conveyors to a receiver or any desired point.

The modified construction shown in Fig. 4 is similar to that shown in Figs. 1 to 3, and above described, except that the travelling screen 22a instead of passing around the two pairs of rollers and beneath the receiving trough 20a, is supported and guided on two rollers 23a and 24a arranged at opposite sides of the machine at an elevation above the top of the trough 20 so that both runs of the screen 22a travel over the open top of the trough. With this construction, the foots discharged with the liquid through the drainage openings of the press cage are intercepted and carried away by the upper run of the endless screen 22a and the liquid flows down through the upper and lower runs of the screen into the trough 20. In this construction also, the foots are scraped or dislodged from the travelling screen by a suitable scraping device 33a and fall into the conveyor 32 by which, as before, they are conveyed away for return to the cooking or tempering bin.

The advantages secured by the described improvements cover a saving in labor by mechanically or automatically carrying away the foots as produced from the press and returning them for repressing, saving labor and reducing foots left in the oil or liquid.

In previous constructions, as the foots are produced, they pile up on the screen, and the oil and additional foots being discharged out of the press cage fall on top of these foots which become more heavily saturated with the liquid, and in shovelling them back into the machine by hand, the foots are broken up finer and more of the foots pass out with the oil and increase the problem of filtering foots out of the liquid before it can go into the storage tank.

With this means of handling the foots, the foots are all the time travelling away from the machine, which prevents the oil from the press dripping on the foots and keeps them drier, elminates handling of the foots by hand, and as stated before, these pieces are very frail and easily broken up fine. Practically all the foots in this way are conveyed away and returned for repressing, and thus a better quality of oil produced, eliminating handling, reducing to a minimum the accumulation of foots which must be taken out of the product by a filter press of other mechanical means before the oil can be stored in a tank.

I claim as my invention:

1. The combination with an expressing press comprising a substantially horizontal cylindrical cage, and means for forcing material lengthwise through the cage and subjecting it to pressure to express liquid from the material, said cage having drainage apertures in and distributed throughout a major portion of the area of its peripheral walls for the escape of the expressed liquid, and a receiver for the expressedliquid below the cage, of means for separating from the expressed liquid the foots escaping with the liquid through the cage drainage apertures, comprising a substantially fiat travelling screen extending under the cage and over said liquid receiver and having an eiTective screening area directly underlying the whole apertured portion of the cage, the space between the cage and said underlying screening area being unobstructed so that the expressed liquid can fall from all under-portions of the cage directly and unobstructedly onto and pass through the screeri to the liquid receiver, and mechanism which causes said screen to travel continuously during the operation of the press in a direction transverse to the length of the cage for conveying the foots as separated by the screen from the falling liquid out of the field of expressed liquid falling from the cage.

2. The combination with an expressing press comprising a substantially horizontal cylindrical cage, and means for forcing material lengthwise through the cage and subjecting it to pressure to express liquid from the material, said cage having drainage apertures in and distributed throughout a major portion of the area of its peripheral walls for the escape of the expressed liquid, and a receiver for the expressed liquid below the cage, of means for separating from the expressed liquid the foots escaping with the liquid through the cage drainage apertures, comprising an endless travelling screen having a substantially flat eifective screening area extending under the cage and over said liquid receiver and directly underlying the whole apertured portion of the cage, the space between the cage and said underlying screening area being unobstructed so that the expressed liquid can fall from all under-portions oi the cage directly and unobstructedly onto and pasathroughthcscteentotheliquidreceiver.

and mechanism which causes said screen to travel continuously during the operation of the press in a direction transverse to the length of the cage for conveying the foots as separated by the screen from the falling liquid out of the field of expressed liquid falling from the cage.

3. The combination with an expressing press comprising a substantially horizontal cylindrical cage, and means for forcing material lengthwise through the cage and subjecting it to pressure to express liquid from the material, said cage having drainage apertures in and distributed throughout a major portion of the area of its peripheral walls for the escape of the expressed liquid, and a receiver for the expressed liquid below the cage, ofmeans for separating from the expressed liquid the foots escaping with the liquid through the cage drainage apertures, comprising an endless travelling screen having a substantially fiat and unobstructed efiective screening area extending under the cage and over said liquid receiver and directly underlying the whole apertured portion of the cage so that the expressed liquid can fall from all under-portions of the cage directly and unobstructedly onto and pass through the screen to the liquid receiver, mechanism which causes said screen to travel continuously during the operation of the press in a direction transverse to the length of the cage for conveying the foots as separated by the screen from the falling liquid out of the field of expressed liquid falling from the cage, and means at one side of said liquid receiver for scraping the foots from said travelling screen and delivering the toots away from said screen and from said field of falling liquid.

CHARLES B. UPTON. 

